Some of us think more about death than others. We may have lost a loved one and hope to see them again one day. Maybe we’re faced with a grave diagnosis (like I was), or we are simply getting older. As we age, we see how living in a fallen world takes its toll on our temporal bodies. This is okay because we get another life after this one, free from the ravages of sin, fear, decay, and death. God gave us an assured path; we don’t have to guess or wonder.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God [that is, His remarkable, overwhelming gift of grace to believers] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Good News
The good news is that there’s assurance that the end of time on earth will not be the end of life. God promised and provided for us to live forever. Do we deserve heaven? None of us do; if any human were permitted to heaven in their current state, they would ruin it. We’ve all done it; we’ve acted unlovingly toward an innocent person. Did you know that is enough for God to keep us from heaven? The reason for pain, death, injustice, and sorrow, is sin. Poet Robert Burns puts it so well, as he describes it as man’s inhumanity to man.
“Many and sharp the num’rous ills
Robert Burns
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav’n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn,—
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!
9 But if you show partiality [prejudice, favoritism], you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as offenders. 10 For whoever keeps the whole Law but stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.
James 2:9
The Greatest Act of Love
In His love, God sent His Son to live perfectly as a human and die in our place. The entire purpose was to take our punishment so that we could stand before God as sinless. No one is exempt from physical death, but spiritual life is available through the greatest act of love on earth—Jesus’ suffering and death in human form to pay for our sins. We may not be promised tomorrow or even the rest of today, but we are promised life from the Author of Life.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10
Thank You, God
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12
